Tuesday 30 October 2012

MY BROTHER AND BANFF!


On his Business trip to Calgary, he took his dear sister that’s me Ahem! No Mona little one don’t get green you are equally dear to both of us ….only thing we grew up together sharing toys, games, inventing languages, exploring the huge rooms back home in Poona for the so called hidden treasures in the huge bangalow constructed during the British time, when the whole household was  taking their siesta in the lazy afternoons. We worked on our secret language to share some mischief together. I remember we named our Doctor uncle ‘Khastam ’ we detested him with a passion for injecting  those menacing looking  painful  injections…and giving us enema at the drop of a hat !Yes we also got sick together …We have shared our measles, chicken pox, thyphoid, mumps and what not…lying side by side in perfect harmony, companionship and disagreement much to the chagrin of our parents .

Now he wanted to share the unique visual delight of his, to explore and experience the beauty of Alberta. Which I did to the hilt ! 

We flew from Toronto at 7 am Toronto time and reached Calgary at 8.40 a.m.Calgary time. After flying for four  hours .Calgary is to the west of Toronto hence the two hours time difference. He graciously offered me the window seat. And before I made myself comfortable he had dosed off .Could not see much as most part we were either above the clouds or between them .The turbulent weather  tossed the plane  around with such ease as if it were a Frisbee  gave me such a fright  oblivious to the jerky ride  he was in sweet dreams .He opened his beautiful eyes when we were on the descend .He pointed out to the Rockies far away, the prairies and as we came closer to the ground he pointed out to the landmarks ….the Downtown The Calgary tower , The Saddle stadium. As we touched the tarmac – I reported safe landing to Mom and Dad and told them unlike the weather predictions of black menacing clouds we had a sunny bright day spread out before us. Well- I said  it too soon   The 680 News was right as we hired a Chevy and set the G.P.S  on his Apple iPhone  the sky covered  itself with a thick black blanket dousing the excitement of my brother who wanted  me to ‘dekho  the picture postcard perfect scenic beauty of the Rockies against he backdrop of  deep  blue sunny skies .His conversation took an apologetic note as to last this…last time that…because by now the rain came down  in sheets. I assured him that if driving was not a pain with him in the in Clementine weather I was thoroughly enjoying the novelty of it all .He seemed relieved and we relaxed.

We’ drove on in the brand new car on strong engineered straight road  with the river  along side . swirling  around the   trees downstream. to me resembling Tim Horton’s Coffee Double Double  as he likes it. I pointed out the  slurpy river gushing down looking so inviting in the cold rain ! Imagine a  hot chocolate river cascading down. engulfing the Evergreen trees . Calgary is dotted with the X-mas trees. It  makes  the place look so  festive !For quite sometime we went on and on a straight flat road with a prairie like terrain until we turned a long bend of the road and there we were hit by the sight of mammoth mountains seemed like holding hands blocking our way . It looked like a cull-de sac in the far horizon. Even as we were admiring it the clouds rushed in and covered the Rockies with their white mantle . .With the rain and clouds in play the far away sentinels disappeared from our sight.

With the pattering raindrops playing the drums overhead ,keeping time with the running commentary of my brother extolling the scenic beauty of the area we were traversing on sunny days that he had experienced when he was there on previous occasions… I didn’t miss much. So we were  on the Ice field Parkway road in high spirits with the sole aim of enjoying the day -come rain or storm!

Believe me I experienced the most spectacular long drive . .Even as I write I cannot imagine travelling through a diverse  variety of landscapes . Effortlessly and smoothly we overtook many a tourists  cars and buses. Different makes of the cars made the road so colourful .Technology  exhibition in motion  does not give one  a monotonous /dull moment. Many caravan trailers  were on the road .He explained that it was like home on wheels , very exciting especially when travelling with the entire family…they also had different rest areas. Many cars had a trailer holding their boats and bikes, fishing poles.

We  reached  Banff Town area .The name Banff comes from Banffshire, Scotland ,birthplace of a major financer of the Canadian Pacific  Railways ,elevation 1,384 ft.

Banff is a quaint town surrounded by six mountain ranges of Rocky mountain. It seemed that we were in a sort of an arena.The elks and deers roaming around nibbling from the foliage are used to the tourists and don’t mind modeling their antlers . We parked our car very near one of them and saw those huge big innocent beautiful eyes . He gave a  nonchalant look to our admiring eyes and continued nibbling. We  happily took a few pictures. Every summer the elks grow their antlers and every autumn shed it, my brother informed me.   The drizzle slowly turned to a heavy one, we hurriedly took a few videos and ran into the McDonald s to grab a Coffee ,sipping the creamy liquid watching Banff go by ..ran back to our car   …started our onward journey captured the Sulphur springs , as a  background with both of us posing happily contended . Had a snack at  the Castle like five star hotel and off we  went to  the  Banff National Park . Driving through it he told me , that it was the animal’s habitat and we human’s were sort of trespassing … we spotted a little crowd  at the roadside faraway …. we slowed down  he told me that perhaps it was some animal and sure enough we were treated to a mother bear and baby bear duo  alongside the road in a little clearing ...giving  the crowd  a royal ignore busy eating something . They looked so very cute ! There was a hushed silence of awe .They had us totally bowled over it was an epic moment which every one of us were trying to capture on our videos or camera .The excitement  of the audience was spilling on the road and the cars were lining up …however the discipline of the crowd was amazing as the ones who had enjoyed the mother and child bliss drove off  making place for new arrivals of fellow tourists to witness the humane scene of the black grizzly bears!. two for joy indeed! For quite a few miles the bears dominated our conversation .We felt like the proverbial ‘licking the cream’ and something to crow about for a long time to come!

 To be continued…..

    

Wednesday 24 October 2012

AMUL THE TASTE OF INDIA!


Today I had gone for the inauguration of Dudhmotisagar Dairy at Dharuhera.

It is a Gujrat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited venture . With a capacity of 30 lac litres per day ,AMUL(Anand Milk Union Limited) has dedicated

this India’s largest dairy to NCR(National Capital Region )i.e Delhi and surrounding

areas  such as Faridabad,Gurgoan,Gaziabad  NOIDA etc. Milk will be collected from the

NCR region and  supplied to the Plant .Here  it will be packaged into milk Pouches ,Buttermilk ,probiotic lassi,Yogurt and curd. The Chairman of the Gujrat Co-operative Mr. Vipul Choudhary emphasised that the milk that they will supply will be of good quality as always . He acknowledged the greatness of Dr. Kurien the Milkman of India.

Dr.Kurien a legend in his lifetime as well who started the co-operative movement that transformed the lives of poor farmers while making India self-reliant in milk production.

Mr.Bhupinder Singh Hooda the chief minister of Haryana the chief guest for the fuction

remarked that ‘desho nei desh hamara, jaha dudh dahi hamara khana’ The co-operative of Gujrat plus  the Milk from Haryana will help  increase the yield  manifold!Murrah is the pedigree cow from Haryana ,whose population should be increased.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing inaugurated the Dudhmotisagar Dairy India’s largest till date.
 
In attendance were the officials of the co-oprative,the workers of the plant ,milkmen of the area and journalists.

Thursday 18 October 2012

BLOG!...IN PURSUIT OF RECOGNITION!

I am sure you must have heard about atmosphere, biosphere, stratosphere and recently have you heard of Blogosphere?!…where a whole range of Blogs nestle together from all over ,from all sorts of people – Mortals who are famous who have made their mark and mortals who  are still at it i.e. desirous to make a mark  on the sands of time …write blogs and experience the extraordinary feeling of being writers!
Well what are Blogs ?
These are weblogs that are updated on a regular basis by their authors .They offer an opportunity to write anything under the sun . In the electronics media it has made its unique presence. One cannot just fathom the vast range of ideas that are available at the press of a few keys .There are many a philosophical contemplations that would confound and confuse Confucius ,had he been around! Some Blogs  by experts, focus on particular subjects  …we have Political blogs, health, medical, gardening, music both classical and popular blogs, Project blogs, Science and Technology blogs, Art and Craft blog Parenting blogs Credit blogs and what have you .Besides the private individuals, there are Company blogs and Newspapers have their own blogs. The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990’s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users.
Today Blogging has become a trendy thing to do …it’s a wave of the future. Whether it is a fad or proves to be a way of communication it deserves a serious look.
Thanks to the visionary who designed this  feature  where in one  could express one’s thoughts , matter of opinion without any hesitation ,without the fear of editing or censorship !Here at the outset let me make it clear … most of the Blog writers share their ideas without any inhibitions  as regards grammar ,syntax, punctuation  the writer just releases his ideas on the premise that the reader is a discerning one and will glen knowledge from the raw writing (raw as in raw data in statistics) so to speak. Just sounding a warning to the children and the readers in general who tend to take the printed word as Gospel never doubting the lay out of the text…Beware… for it is not an edited piece hence one has to edit it in one’s mind eye or even perhaps show it to the experts for their approval. And only then use the piece or rather it would be a good idea to take the general connotation of the piece and use it in their writings in turn. However some bloggers are par excellence and are meticulous.  Creditmantra.blogspot.com is one such Blog . One can find well researched and well-structured articles on credit giving a wealth of information, with no grammatical errors.  There must be so many others   I am sure.
It is a great site to gratify the writer, poet, the artist in a person . It is a panacea to overcome the dejection of a person’s articles being rejected by magazines and dailies of repute Here one can express oneself to one’s heart’s content. It is as if one is unleashing one’s mind in the written word for the worldwide audience .The canvas so huge.
Blogs have no cut out epic themes. Temptations, illusions home coming to home truths bare it all and be ready for some scathing criticism by the reader…and if the Blogger is the one for enjoying a friendly banter then do any of the following:
a)      take it in your stride
b)      give a suitable repartee
c)       rectify and
d)      support your view or just let it pass and move on.

Bloggers have published books based on their blogs, known as BLOOKS.In 2005 the Lulu Blooker Prize was instituted to give recognition to the best Blook.
It’s worthy for one’s self esteem to get a huge amount of targeted visitors on one’s blog.
A popular blog attracts advertisers. This is a sort of recognition of the blog ’s popularity.
To my mind eventually it will emerge as an intensely competitive industry especially for the bloggers who want to escape out of the nonentity status .
All the blogs together constitute a magazine of millions of pages that are available to the readers to enjoy. It is a wing of Globalisation so to speak .Globalisation implies linking of a nation’s market with the R.O.W. (Rest of the World). Extending the same logic to blogs
Blogalisation would mean integrating the ideas of individuals belonging to different continents, nations with diverse creed and culture .. to reach out and touch each other and be richer by it . Coupled with this is the immense satisfaction of interacting with the universe .The world is the oyster for the author of a successful blog.
Personally when I post my blog, I feel liberated (the statue of liberty kinds).Many thanks to my brother who instated me into this arena. I bragged that I write a lot of poems in the blank verse. He said write on the blog. Well I was stumped as all my poems reeked of self-pity,  negativity …in that line and I felt I had nothing to write .Today  I write on anything that catches my fancy. It could be a news item from a daily, or an excerpt from an old or new magazine or something from the novel that I am reading that triggers similar nostalgic thoughts or I write about a place I have visited or some great music that I have heard.
I also love the postage stamp sized ads that spring up alongside the post.  These little ads are like testimonials to acknowledge the sometimes painstakingly crafted pieces.
Wait a minute that’s not all there are some golden rules one must follow in order to be a good blogger.
1)      First and foremost No Procrastinating or else like me you will end up with numerous scraps cut out of the newspapers, magazines, excerpts photocopies from books, your own ideas scribbled on lose sheets. ..all sitting in overflowing files …all because of …..I’ll write tomorrow … Hence I reiterate no procrastination…just sit down and get on with it on your computer and finish it.
2)      Set  aside  some time weekly, bi weekly at least.
3)      Get into the minds of the readers especially when one is writing on technical subjects. Write on the basis of the questions that could crop up in the reader’s mind.
4)      Photos are great visual shorthand for comprehending any text. Get some relevant pictures they sure are worth a thousand words. An interesting blog is one that tells a story with words and pictures.
5)      Make it simple and short .Big posts get boring .This is an era of fast..fast..fast  fast food ,fast track, shortcuts, quicks and all …So be crisp ,clear and brief !
6)      Spread the word   : be an extrovert proclaim to your universe via Facebook, twitter etc. about your Blog.
7)      Last but not the least remember to run your piece through the spell check mode and also edit it for grammatical errors and there you are with a crown of fame waiting for you!
Man is a social animal .All that he wants to do is share his thoughts ,experiences, with fellow beings that’s what we are all about social animals talkative want to talk  and what better way to do than share it on the blog .
There are a number of free blogging sites, that you will find in which you can run a blog for free. There is a step by step and easy –to- follow guide that will help you set up your blog from the start …then click the ‘create a Blog’ link …pick an address a blog title ,then chose your favorite blog template and get started !
Well if you want to really experience the recently discovered appeal of reaching out through your writings ? ... join the band wagon  … there are around 56.6 million blogs worldwide! Blog! the newly besotted game governed by nothing but your soul-   imagination unplugged!

Sunday 7 October 2012

APPLES


With the apple picking season on …How was apple picking?

Here are some Apples…

…An Apple does not fall far from the tree…kids are like their parents.

…Apple of someone’s eye …dearly loved

…In Apple pie order…very well organised.

…An Apple a day keeps the doctor away…nutritious

…Apple polisher…a flatterer

…Apples and Oranges…two entities not similar.

…Sure as God made green Apples…absolutely certain.

…Motherhood and apple pie …quientessential elements of American home life.

…Millions saw the Apple fall,but Newton was the one to ask why?

…Apple of dicord…cause of quarrel.

…Adam’s Apple...

…Apples for Apples…comparison between similar/related things.

…How about them Apples/How do you like them Apples…used to express admiration

…(What do you think of that)

…Rotten Apple…a single bad person or thing.

…Big Apple…nickname for New York City.

…Upset the apple cart…to mess up/to ruin something .

…Up the apples and pears… up the stairs.

 

I came across this Apple in today’s Sunday Business Standard 7th Oct.2012.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE OTHER APPLE:

 

50 years ago on Oct. 5 ,the Beatles released their first single ,’Love Me Do’,and then went on to become the best selling group in the history of music.

A year ago on the same day,Apple founder Steve Jobs passed away.

 

Since coming together in 1960 ,the fabulous four (John Lenon,singer ,songwrite and rhythm guitarist ;Paul McCartney.singer,songwriter and bass guitarist ;George Harrison,lead guitarist;Ringo Starr,Drums.)

As the money poured in ,in 1968 ,the British rockers formed a group to house their record label and a clutch of other creative ventures .They called it Apple Corps Ltd.With a green apple as the Logo.

 

A decade later ,on the other side of the Atlantic ,a certain Steve Jobs started another iconic group –Apple Computer ,and almost immediately ,invited a lawsuit from the original keepers of the ‘Apple’ brand alleging Trademark infringements.A metalic Apple  with a bite off was their logo.

From 1978 to 2007 ,the two Apples fought intermittently till finally reaching a settlement .Apple Inc.(formerly Apple Computer) now owns all of the trademarks related to “Apple”,but liscenses certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their use.